by Brad Taylor
We’d taken the information back to our hotel in the Zona Rosa and I’d given the team what little we had, telling them to return to their rooms for some shut-eye. We all needed some decompression time after the activities of the past couple of days, and I wasn’t sure when we’d get another chance. It was the way of such operations. You might get sleep for the next four months because the command decided to pull the plug, or you might be up for the next four days.
Used to the stop-and-go, they left, but Jennifer had stayed behind. I let her, given her brother’s life was at stake.
I had contacted Kurt on our company VPN, an encrypted network that bounced around forever through various ISPs to cloak who I was calling. He took the information, but, as expected, he was decidedly lukewarm on doing anything with it.
Jennifer, behind me and off camera from the VPN, had pleaded with him, trying the same hand she had with me about a threat to the GPS constellation, but he wasn’t buying it, and I understood why. Hell, I wasn’t even buying it. The evidence was simply too weak, and we were literally flying by the seat of our pants down here, conducting operations without a shred of backup should someone get rolled up.
In the end, Kurt said he’d prep the intelligence picture — a nice way of saying he’d have the hacker cell penetrate BMW — but we were to stand down until further notice. We agreed to talk again the following morning, and I signed off.
After the call had ended, I’d sat for a minute reflecting. Jennifer had cleared her throat, reminding me she was in the room, and I told her to go get some rest. She didn’t move.
I joked, “What? You want to sleep in my room tonight?”
She slowly shook her head and said, “No. Not with your attitude about my brother.”
Trying to lighten the mood, I said, “Usually the woman waits a little longer in the relationship to start withholding favors to get what she wants.”
Jennifer’s face was flint. Not a bit of humor at all. She said, “Usually the man I sleep with isn’t such a callous ass.”
I realized the joke was a mistake. I’d just brought our relationship into the equation of what should have been a team member — team leader discussion. I needed to get that back.
“Jennifer, listen to me closely. I care about your brother, and I’ll do whatever I can within the limits of what’s possible, but right now, you need to get your head on straight. This is a Taskforce operation, period.”
She said, “You never seemed to care about that in the past. You always did what you thought was right, regardless of Taskforce rules. Remember in Prague? You rescued all those sex slaves when you could have simply used a beacon. Now, when it’s someone I care about, you’ve turned into a by-the-book soldier.”
It was true, I’d taken a significant risk assaulting a house full of Albanian Mafia who were trafficking in young girls, but she was failing to remember that the only reason I’d done it was because she had demanded the assault. I thought it prudent to let that remain unspoken.
“Jennifer, one of those girls could have positively ID’d the terrorist. That’s why we went. Just like we did today, in case you have forgotten. We just hit a house we thought was holding your brother, but he wasn’t there. I’m sure there were a few girls out the night we hit the house, and we didn’t go running around the countryside chasing them.”
“Because the girl with the knowledge was there. If she hadn’t been, you might have chased her down.”
I said, “Jennifer, please… don’t make this hard. You know I’m correct here. Don’t make me play team leader.”
She took my hand and said, “I don’t want my team leader. He’s kind of an asshole. I want my Pike back.”
Damn it. Unfair.
“Jennifer, listen, if we’re stood down tomorrow, that’s the end of it. They’ll take the aircraft and head home and there’s nothing I can do about it. I can’t call a Prairie Fire for your brother.”
She held my eyes. “I’m not asking them. I’m asking you. If they fly home, we stay and find my brother. Just the real Grolier Recovery Services. That’s all I want.”
She stared into my soul, waiting for an answer I knew damn well I couldn’t give, but my resistance was eroding just from her presence. I was beginning to wonder if I’d lost the ability to control my own fate. If somehow she’d planted a chip in my head and had a remote control in her purse.
She was the exact opposite of me, always following the rules and chastising me for bending them — or breaking them outright. Now she was begging to do exactly that. I should have found it a relief, like I was rubbing off on her, but I didn’t. All I felt was a loss of control. Well, my conscious brain did anyway. My subconscious was another matter entirely, and it apparently held more sway.
“Okay. Damn it, okay. We’ll find your brother.”
She smiled. “That wasn’t so hard, now, was it?” She kissed me, then moved to the bed.
I said, “What, now you want to stay?”
She propped a pillow under her head and lay down. “I always want to stay when Pike’s in the room. That asshole team leader is a different story.”
Christ. She drives me batshit.
She leaned to face me and smiled. “You going to sleep on the floor tonight?”
The comment meant more than the words alone. It was something she’d said a long time ago, in Bosnia, when we were both being hunted and she didn’t trust me as far as she could throw me. Whatever remote control she had was obviously tied to her mouth.
I thought about saying the exact same thing I had in Bosnia, then curling up with a pillow next to the bathroom. Well, for a nanosecond anyway. I’m not that stupid.
We’d gotten a hell of a lot less sleep than we should have and then had to wake up extra early to allow her to execute her little walk of shame back to her room before the team showed up. I felt like I was in high school, but she insisted. I guess it would have been a little awkward with her being the ”first” to arrive while wearing the same clothes she had on yesterday, her hair looking like she’d just awakened.
As it was, Knuckles was the first in, knocking on my door a mere two minutes after Jennifer had left. He took one look at me and shook his head.
What, is it painted on my face?
I said, “You’re getting here a little early, aren’t you? I was going to sleep in, glad I didn’t.”
He rolled his eyes, pushed past me, and said, “Shut up. I saw her get in the elevator.”
I said, “Who?”
Before he could answer, another Johnny Eager Beaver knocked on my door. I let in Decoy, and the conversation was dead. Thirty minutes later, everyone had arrived but Jennifer. When she entered, Knuckles caught her eye and gave a theatrical scowl. She winked at him, just to rub his face in it, I suppose.
Oh, man. His scowl turned real. I glared at her, then got the room’s attention. I brought them up to speed, telling them about the VPN last night and the potential for future operations, which, given the current state of affairs, wasn’t that great.
They broke for breakfast and I waited with dread for the morning VPN with Kurt. Honestly, I didn’t see how I was going to access the BMW data if Kurt told the team to stand down. I might be able to do it from DC, but Mexico was a different kettle of fish. The hacking cell activities were taken about as seriously as an actual hit, and getting them to work unauthorized would take some creative skill. Skill that might get me kicked out of the Taskforce for good.
The VPN initiated, and I found out how quickly things could change overnight, along with a reminder that I should watch the news while on operations. A horrific airline crash due to some GPS blip had caused the Oversight Council to switch into full-alert mode, and we were given carte blanche to find Jennifer’s brother. Kurt and I both agreed that it wasn’t going to do anything against whatever threat was out there, but it sure made me happy. I could have my cake and eat it too.
Six hours later, I was sitting with Jennifer outside the Santa Muerte cult of death church, and
the blue marble marking the BMW was blinking steadily inside Tepito. The narco hadn’t gutted the system from his car, and the Taskforce penetration had worked. BMW Assist was giving us great assistance.
We’d downloaded the BMW app to our phones, plugged in the user name and password, and voilà—we were tracking the car. It was all I could do not to access the system, get the car on the line, and shock the hell out of whoever was in it by saying, “BMW, how can I assist you in selling cocaine?” That would have been good theater.
Instead, I’d sent in Knuckles and Blood for some dismounted reconnaissance, with Decoy on a leash as backup in a sedan. I picked the recce team with a purpose, given what we had to work with. Jennifer was usually perfect for this kind of thing, because nobody expected a woman, but in this case, with the homogeneous nature of the barrio, she’d stand out.
Knuckles had black hair that he always wore long, like a hippie. Blood was African-American, and while he wouldn’t exactly fade into the landscape, he had a better shot than Jennifer or me. With a two-day growth of beard and some ratty clothes, both looked like they belonged in Tepito. Which was fine for a recce, wandering around like they were looking to offload a shipment of bootleg CDs.
What we would do once we found the target was another story entirely.
44
Blood came on the radio. “This market is very tight. Not a good place for an assault. It’s packed with people.”
I looked at the map on my phone, getting a fix on both their positions in relation to the BMW’s blue marble. “Don’t start thinking assault just yet. Develop the situation. You still have a couple of blocks to go. Maybe it’ll thin out.”
Jennifer gave me a look, chomping at the bit. Off the radio, I said, “Calm down. You don’t want your brother killed in a cross fire by a bunch of Mexican banditos who are reacting to our actions. Let’s get eyes on. Might be better to wait for the BMW to move. Get it in a more favorable location.”
“But my brother may no longer be with it.”
“Have some patience. We don’t know anything yet.”
The radio came to life, with Blood giving me his opinion of my recce plan. “Who the hell thought I’d blend in here? I don’t think these people have ever seen a black man. Everybody I bump into looks like they want to kick my ass. And it’s really crowded, so I’m bumping into a lot.”
“That’s just the neighborhood. Don’t aggravate anyone. Maybe buy some fake Nike basketball shoes. Make ’em all happy.”
“I’m five-seven. I don’t play basketball, you stereotyping asshole.”
“Then buy a sombrero. Just don’t get anyone mad. Break-break. Knuckles, what’s your status?”
“About the same as Blood. Everyone eye-fucking me like they want to fight.”
“From what I’m seeing, you’re closest. Looks like the marble is about a hundred meters south, down an alley to the east.”
“Roger.”
“Decoy, what’s your location?”
“I’m staged on a north-south thoroughfare near the Tepito metro stop, but, Pike, I can’t do shit with the vehicle. There’s no way to get it through the market with any time to react.”
“Roger all. Just hold tight. They’ll be coming to you if things go bad.”
As soon as I said it, things began to go bad.
“Pike, this is Knuckles. I tried to make the turn into the alley and I’ve been stopped. Three guys jabbering in Spanish at me. I can see the nose of the BMW inside a roll-up door about seventy meters away.”
“Okay, back off. Let it go. Blood’s going to try from the other end.”
I heard shouting in the background, then, “Crowd’s gathering. I’m about to be sacrificed to Santa Muerte. I don’t think they like me shopping here.”
“Can you get to Decoy at the metro?”
“No. It’s through them.”
“Overtly hostile?”
“Naw. Not yet. Just apparently want to pick on a gringo.”
“Roger all. Forget the car. Exfil the way you came in. Decoy, you copy? Circle around to the north of the market and go dismounted. Help him break contact. Throw money around if you have to.”
Blood came on. “Pike, I’m at the corner on the other side. I can see a group of men inside the roll-up door with the car. Believe it or not, most look Asian, but there’s one guy who looks like Satan with a bald head, and two are definitely Caucasians.”
Jennifer exclaimed, “Jack! That’s Jack. Come on!”
Before I could stop her, she was out of the car and sprinting across Eje 1 Norte, disappearing into the Tepito marketplace.
I shouted out the open window for her to stop, but it did no good. I leapt out of the car myself, running through the traffic and into the barrio, giving orders on the radio. “Blood, lock down that exit. Don’t let them get out the east end. Knuckles, Jennifer’s headed right to you. Hold your ground as best you can without getting into a fight. Decoy, close on Knuckles.”
I entered the market and was immediately stymied by the mass of people. An alley about five feet wide lined on both sides with multicolored plastic tarps, it was jammed with a moving anthill of people, all buying, selling, or just hanging out, with the air swirling with a myriad of spices from outdoor taco vendors.
I was slowed to a fast walk, bumping through the crowd like a pinball and getting glares from men who looked like they’d shown up directly from the central casting of a spaghetti western. At least by their faces, because I don’t remember any spaghetti western with characters sporting Adidas T-shirts and tattoos, but make no mistake, they all looked like hard men. I saw no sign of Jennifer. Either everyone was getting out of her way because she was a woman, or she’d already been dragged down an alley somewhere.
I keyed my mike again. “Koko, this is Pike. Status.”
Jennifer said, “Closing in on Knuckles’s position.”
Damn. She is flying through this place.
“Do not, I say again, do not engage until we can develop a plan. Link up with Knuckles and wait on me. Acknowledge.”
I heard nothing but couldn’t be sure it wasn’t because I was barreling over a guy selling some sort of food on a cart. He cursed me and I said again, “Koko, acknowledge.”
“Pike, I see Knuckles. I’m on Knuckles now. Break-break. Knuckles, where’s the car?”
Knuckles said, “Koko, stand by. Pike, I got eyes on her, but we got another problem.”
I squeezed between two vendors, shaking my head when one began waving scarves in my face. “What?”
“There’s a group of Asians coming out of the alley that has the BMW. I think they saw the crowd of banditos forming up and didn’t like it. The good news is the banditos quit messing with me. The bad news is the Asian guys are now focused on them, and it looks like they’re working into a fight.”
Jennifer said, “I see them. They’re Korean. Korean Mafia. They own a ton of warehouses around here. The car is probably in a Korean property, and they’re protecting their turf.”
How the hell does she always know this stuff?
“Jennifer, hold what you got. Decoy, what’s your distance?”
“I’m there. I can see Knuckles. Coming in at his six.”
“Okay, listen up—”
“Gun. Bandito pulled a gun.”
Here we go.
“Everyone down. Get out of the fight. Blood, what’s your status?”
“East end is fine. I’m eating a taco. Guess they don’t have an issue with a black man after all.”
“Can you still see the gringos?”
“No, but they never exited the roll-up. They’re still inside.”
A gunshot split the air no more than thirty meters from me. People started screaming, running in all directions. Then the shooting started in earnest. I jammed against a wall and said, “Knuckles, what the fuck is going on?”
“Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Or the Kimchi Corral. You pick.”
“Get down the alley. Get to the car.”
&nb
sp; “I can’t from this side. I’ll have to penetrate the cross fire.”
Jennifer said, “This is Koko. I got it. I’m on the near side. I’m going in.”
“No! You stay put, I’m on the way.”
Knuckles said, “She’s the only one who can get there.”
I reentered the flow of people fleeing the market, not wanting to say it, but I did. “Koko, move.”
Working upstream, I reached the intersection in time to see Jennifer turn the corner to the alley, running in the middle of a group of women escaping the gunfire. I caught a glimpse of a Glock in her hand, and I knew she was about to commit to a shooting war to save her brother. And all I could do was back her up.
“Blood, get down the alley. Enter the building.”
“Roger. By myself?”
“Koko’s on the way and I’m right behind her.”
I heard him say, “Good to go,” just as I rounded the corner. The roll-up door with the BMW was much, much closer to my side of the alley than his. Even so, we reached it at the same time. He might not have played basketball, but Blood could run like a damn cheetah.
We entered with pistols drawn, seeing nothing. I heard a door slam at the top of a flight of stairs and we both began running up them. We entered a small apartment with only a couch and a table. At the back was an open sliding door to a makeshift balcony, the curtains flowing in from the wind and the roof to the next building just below it. Jennifer was nowhere to be seen. I was running to the balcony when a Korean appeared out of a side room carrying an AK-47. He raised his weapon and Blood drilled him twice in the chest, throwing him to the ground.
I saw a flash of someone jumping a roof fifty feet away and recognized Jennifer’s hair blowing in the wind. I wanted to chase after her dumb ass but knew I couldn’t leave the area uncleared. Blood was outside the door to the only other room and I ran to him, squeezing his shoulder.
We entered to find the space empty, losing precious seconds.
